James River Squadron

The James River Squadron
was one of the eight major forces that the Confederate States Navy created to
defend its rivers and waterways during the American Civil War (1861–1865). At its apogee, the
squadron consisted of three steam-powered ironclad warships—including the
CSS Virginia,
which famously dueled the Union's ironclad USS Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads (1862)—and more than a
half-dozen small gunboats, converted civilian vessels, and torpedo boats. As was
true with the Confederacy's other naval forces, the James River Squadron saw
little action and was destroyed by its own men as a result of the defeat of
Confederate land forces. MORE...

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Organization

It is not clear when the James River
Squadron was formally established, but it was created out of the Virginia
State Navy that the Commonwealth bequeathed to the Confederacy in June 1861.
That force initially consisted of a converted tugboat, Teaser, and two passenger vessels seized in Virginia waters and
converted into warships: the ten-gun flagship Patrick
Henry (formerly Yorktown) and Jamestown. In addition, two small converted gunboats,
Raleigh and Beaufort (the
latter of which was renamed Roanoke), joined the
squadron from North Carolina early in 1862. In the meantime, at the
suggestion of Matthew
Fontaine Maury, a Virginia-born naval commander who helped to
develop torpedoes, the Confederate Congress appropriated $2 million for a
large fleet of small gunboats. Two of them, Hampton
and Nansemond, were completed and joined the
squadron.

The squadron's first commander was Captain French Forrest, who also commanded
the Norfolk Navy
Yard for the Virginia State Navy and the Confederate Navy. He
commanded the squadron again from 1863 until 1864. Six other officers also
took turns at command during the war: Captain (later Admiral) Franklin
Buchanan, Captain Josiah Tattnall, Captain Sidney Smith Lee, Captain Samuel Barron, Captain
John K. Mitchell, and Admiral Raphael Semmes. Like Forrest, they were senior
officers who had long pre-war service in the U.S. Navy.

Hampton Roads and Its Aftermath

The squadron won naval immortality
during the Battle of Hampton Roads. The formidable ironclad ram CSS Virginia, built on the hull of the steam frigate
USS Merrimack, was commissioned on February 24,
1862. Its commander, the squadron's new flag officer, Captain Franklin
Buchanan, determined to take the experimental ship into action as soon as
possible and, on March 8, 1862, engaged the U.S. blockading squadron at
Newport News. Although the Virginia dominated the
battle, the other ships in the James River Squadron, particularly the Patrick Henry, Jamestown, Teaser, and Beaufort, also
participated in the destruction of the U.S. wooden warships.

During the fight, Buchanan was wounded in the leg, and command of the James
River Squadron transferred to Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones, a Virginian
who had served on the Merrimack before the war. (The
"ap" in Jones's name is Welsh and means "son of.") When he resumed the fight
on March 9, he discovered that the Union now had its own ironclad ship, the
USS Monitor. The two ironclads dueled for four hours,
with neither ship gaining an advantage, but with the Virginia ultimately unable to dislodge the Monitor and finish off the Federal fleet. The Virginia steamed into Hampton Roads again on April 11 and May 8,
but the Monitor declined battle. The Confederate
army's abandonment of Norfolk on May 10, 1862, compelled the navy to destroy the Virginia, which drew too much water to navigate up
the James. The officers, men, and Confederate Marines assigned to the
squadron helped man the guns that turned back the Union fleet at Drewry's
Bluff on May 15.

The loss of Norfolk shifted the
squadron's base of operations—including shipyards, supply depots, hospitals,
and industrial facilities—to the Confederate capital at Richmond. Protected by a
strong line of obstructions, torpedoes (submarine mines), and land
fortifications, the squadron operated at Chaffin's and Drewry's bluffs, nine
miles downstream from the capital. Between May 1862 and May 1864, the
squadron enjoyed a long respite from battle, during which its strength was
augmented by three ironclads based on the general design of the Virginia and built at the Richmond yards: CSS Richmond (commissioned in November 1862), CSS Fredericksburg (commissioned May 1864), and CSS Virginia II (commissioned May 1864). A fourth
ironclad, the CSS Texas, was launched but not
commissioned when the war ended.

Union Offensive

The squadron's respite ended in May
1864 when a formidable naval flotilla steamed up the James along with the
Union Army of the James.
(The offensive was part of the new Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign
against Richmond that eventually stalled in a ten-month siege of
Petersburg.) A Confederate torpedo destroyed the Union gunboat,
the USS Commodore Jones, on May 6 and stalled the
Union flotilla. Confederate Navy secretary Stephen Mallory ordered James
River Squadron commander Captain John K. Mitchell to engage the enemy, but
Mitchell had little confidence in his chances and declined to act.

From late in May 1864 to early in April 1865, the opposing naval forces
faced each other across barriers of obstructions and torpedoes and dramatic
bends in the James
River below Chaffin's Bluff—a situation mirroring the armies'
confrontations within trench lines. Acting in concert with the land
batteries (several of which were manned by naval personnel), the squadron
worked to prevent Union forces from crossing the river behind Confederate
lines and looked for opportunities to move against the enemy.

That opportunity came on the night of January 23–24, 1865, when high water
apparently broke a hole through Union obstructions. Mitchell hoped that his
squadron could fight its way through a weakened Union fleet (several
warships had been transferred to North Carolina for the attack on Fort
Fisher), destroy the Union supply base at City Point (now Hopewell), and force Grant
to abandon his investment of Petersburg. The desperate plan went awry immediately as all the
warships but the Fredericksburg and Hampton grounded in the shallow waters. Dawn found the Richmond, Virginia, and Drewry particularly vulnerable to Union batteries and
to the double-turreted monitor USS Onondaga. All but
the Drewry escaped, but the "battle" of Trent's Reach
was a one-sided affair. Mitchell contemplated renewing the effort on the
night of January 24, but the squadron was too crippled to allow it.

War's End

Mitchell's successor as squadron
commander was Admiral Raphael Semmes, late commander of the celebrated
commerce raider Alabama. Semmes found his new
assignment "dreary, weary, and lonely." In the early morning hours of April
3, 1865, Semmes belatedly learned that the Confederacy was abandoning
Richmond and he was ordered to destroy the ships of the James River
Squadron. He carried out his orders, then transformed the squadron's
officers, sailors, and marines into a land force that accompanied the
Confederate government to Danville, Virginia, and eventually to surrender at Greensboro,
North Carolina. Naval personnel manning the land batteries around Richmond
became a "Naval Brigade" under command of Captain John Randolph Tucker and
accompanied the Army
of Northern Virginia during the Appomattox Campaign and its eventual
surrender at
Appomattox Court
House on April 9, 1865.

Aside from the legendary accomplishments of the Virginia at Hampton Roads, the James River Squadron did not have
any readily apparent impact on the course of the war. One of its own
officers, Lieutenant Francis Shepperd, in 1864 warned that history would
judge harshly a navy that "took no active part" in the defense of the
capital and ask "why so much money and so much valuable time has been
devoted to the building of three formidable ironclads, two of which can
barely … navigate the river." Union admiral David Dixon Porter dismissed the
James River Squadron as "the most useless force the Confederates had ever
put afloat" because he deemed the "forts, torpedoes, and obstructions on the
river" to have been adequate defenses.

But, flawed as they were, the James
River ironclads were impressive achievements for an agrarian economy.
Furthermore, their presence—and their potential for wreaking havoc on Union
supply bases—preoccupied U.S. naval forces. Confederate Navy secretary
Stephen R. Mallory exaggerated when he insisted that "Our Navy alone kept
that of the U.S. from reaching Richmond by the James River," but it was the
collapse of Confederate armies, not navies, that forced the destruction of
the James River Squadron and of other Confederate naval forces.

Time Line

June 1861
- The Confederate Navy's James River Squadron is created out of the state navy bequeathed to the Confederacy by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The force initially consists of a converted tugboat and two passenger vessels seized in Virginia waters and converted into warships.

February 24, 1862
- The formidable ironclad ram CSS Virginia, built on the hull of the steam frigate USS Merrimack, is commissioned. Its commander, the James River Squadron's new flag officer, Captain Franklin Buchanan, is determined to take the experimental ship into action as soon as possible.

March 8, 1862
- At the Battle of Hampton Roads, the ironclad CSS Virginia experiences combat for the first time at the mouth of the James River at Hampton Roads, where it meets several wooden warships of the Union's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, sinking one and damaging several others.

March 9, 1862
- The CSS Virginia engages with the Union's ironclad, the USS Monitor, at the mouth of the James River. The battle lasts for more than four hours. While neither ship gains a decisive advantage, it is a strategic victory for the Union because the Virginia is unable to destroy any more of the Union's wooden fleet.

April 11, 1862
- Almost a month after its battle with the Union warship USS Monitor, the CSS Virginia pulls out of Norfolk to engage the Union navy, but is no longer effective.

May 8, 1862
- The CSS Virginia pulls out of Norfolk for the third time in its short life, and again it sees little engagement.

May 11, 1862
- Confederates destroy the CSS Virginia after the fall of Yorktown because it draws too much water to navigate up the James River and in order to ensure that it would not fall into Union hands.

May 15, 1862
- A force of Confederate soldiers, sailors, and marines at Fort Darling fight a Union naval flotilla at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff. The USS Monitor cannot elevate its guns sufficiently high to fire on Confederate emplacements, while the USS Galena takes heavy punishment. The Union ships turn back.

November 1862
- The ironclad CSS Richmond is commissioned and joins the James River Squadron.

May 1864
- The ironclad CSS Fredericksburg is commissioned and joins the James River Squadron.

May 1864
- The ironclad CSS Virginia II, named for the first ironclad ship that battled the USS Monitor at Hampton Roads in 1862, is commissioned and joins the James River Squadron.

May 6, 1864, 2 p.m.
- Members of the Confederate Submarine Battery Service detonate a torpedo that sinks the USS Commodore Jones and turns back U.S. ships charged with assaulting positions at Drewry's Bluff on the James River. Union forces opt for a land assault on the Drewry's Bluff–Fort Darling positions.

May 16–17, 1864
- Forces under Confederate general Pierre G. T. Beauregard turn back an attempt by divisions of Union general Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James to capture Fort Darling on the James River.

January 23–24, 1865
- At the Battle of Trent's Reach, Union artillery and naval units heavily rebuff ships of the Confederate James River Squadron after several vessels run aground, including the ironclads CSS Richmond and Virginia II.

April 3, 1865
- Following the fall of Richmond, Admiral Raphael Semmes destroys the ships of the James River Squadron. He transforms his officers, sailors, and marines into a land force that accompanies the Confederate government to Danville and eventual surrender at Greensboro, North Carolina.